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Where does greatness come from? Doug Gilmour wishes he could explain what happened, how it happened, in the two most magical seasons of his Hall of Fame career. But he can't find the words to quantify the almost out-of-body experience.

He talks about his coach, Pat Burns. He talks about his teammates on the Maple Leafs. He talks, the way hockey people always talk, about chemistry, and dressing room and accepting roles, but he can't with clear expression unravel how it was he was right there with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux for those two seasons in Toronto, when before that he wasn't, and afterwards he was not.

"I wish I knew," said Gilmour, now 45 years old, already nervous about the Saturday night ceremony where his jersey will be raised to the rafters of the Air Canada Centre. "I've thought about it. I think everybody has thought about it. It's like everything just came into place.

"And for me, it all started with Pat (Burns). I don't know what it was about him, but he had this way of looking at me, he intimidated me without even saying a word. He'd just stare at me and I knew what he was saying. I had to be better. We just had this thing. He knew how to push. He worked for me. I worked for him."

"I don't know what happened," Burns said. "I don't know why that time was better than any other? We just knew how to work together, had really good communication. People often ask me: "Who's the player? Who gave you the most of himself?" And the answer's easy. Without a doubt it's Doug, you look at his size, his weight, his heart. You couldn't ask for anything more in a player.

"If you ask me, for those two years, he was the best player in hockey."

Gilmour played 1474 National Hockey League games, 20 seasons in all, scored a Stanley Cup winning goal for Calgary, wore the uniforms of the Blues, Flames, Leafs, Devils, Blackhawks, Sabres and Canadiens, but it was those first two seasons in Toronto in which he played for Burns that make him legendary, possibly, the greatest Leaf we've ever seen. It was a flash and then it was over. In the years of 1993 and 1994, Gilmour scored 301 points -- regular season and playoffs -- playing for the Leafs. At their most prolific, Mats Sundin, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich or Syl Apps needed at least four seasons to accomplish similar numbers. The only Leaf whose statistics register anywhere near Gilmour range are those of Darryl Sittler, who scored 240 points, regular season and playoffs, in his two most complete seasons. But to put Gilmour's playoff runs in perspective, seems almost crazy over time: The 63-playoff points he scored over two seasons in Toronto were matched in Sittler's 10th Toronto playoff season and in Keon's 14th.

For 40 years Leafs fans have waited for their own parade and only have come close, maybe once, in all that time. It is impossible to remember Gilmour without remembering 1993. He scored 127 points in the regular season, another 35 through three playoff rounds, and came up a game short of advancing to the Stanley Cup final. He had already won a Cup in Calgary in 1989, but this was Toronto. "My team," he calls it.

"If someone were to tell you, you could play Game 7 at home and all you had to do was win it to get to the Stanley Cup final, wouldn't you take that?" Gilmour said. "I would. We had it and then Wayne Gretzky played one of the greatest games of his life and took it away from us."

But there still is that part of Gilmour, ever the competitor, who holds on to the notion the Leafs were ever so slightly robbed. In Game 6, the bane of every Leafs fans' existence, Gilmour face to face with Gretzky atop the faceoff circle, was cut as Gretzky's follow through of his stick went into Gilmour's forehead. Gilmour clearly was cut and bleeding: The expression on Gretzky's face was that of fear. "Should have been five and a game misconduct," Gilmour said. "But Kerry Fraser didn't see it. I've always understood that. What I didn't understand was the linesmen. They had the ability to make the call. They had to have seen it, even if Fraser didn't? That's the only regret I have of that call. Somebody else should have said something -- and if that happens, who knows what's next?"

Instead, it is all part of the unfortunate history of the modern Maple Leafs. The Gilmour Chapter: What was and what could have been.

"I won the Stanley Cup with the Devils," Burns said. "But that Leafs team was my favourite. That team had the most players who clicked with me. When I was coaching Montreal in '89 and we lost the Cup to Calgary, one of the reasons we lost was because of Doug. He was the best defensive player on their team and the best offensive player. You could have a great defensive player like a Guy Carbonneau or a John Madden, like I've had, but those guys couldn't be your No. 1 centres. Doug could play that role and be your No. 1 centre. I don't know anyone else you could say that about."

To understand all that Gilmour accomplished, you almost had to play on his wing. Joey Mullen, a career 40-goal scorer, scored 50 once -- the year Gilmour was his centreman. Dave Andreychuk, a 30-something scorer most of his years, scored 50-twice: Both as Gilmour's winger. "He couldn't shoot," Burns said. "But boy could he pass. It's like what Mario Lemieux did for Warren Young. Doug could take a player, tell him to get open, and he'd get him the puck. Everybody had their best years playing with Gilmour."

Now, comes Saturday night, back on Hockey Night In Canada, with his kids, his parents, his family -- 20-30 in all, he estimates -- and even the players he coaches on the Kingston Frontenacs all there to honour a Leaf who only played 445 games -- 52 of them playoff games -- in blue and white. It was a short run, born of a one-sided trade, ending uncomfortably twice, but it was indeed a memorable run.

"Up until now, I haven't thought about it a lot," Gilmour said. "But now I'm getting nervous. It's hard to believe it's even happening. To me, this is the biggest honour I'll have for my whole career. I've got a Stanley Cup, that's a team thing, but this is personal. You look back, remember all the things that happened, I almost signed a three-year extension (before being traded to New Jersey). I just didn't know if it was what I wanted, and before I decided, the offer was gone. Cliff (Fletcher) was on his way out. He said they had to trade me.

"Then I was so excited coming back, when Pat (Quinn) called me (and traded for me). He had a really good team. I asked him what he expected from me. He said: 'Just help us win.' I didn't know I was going to get hurt. I didn't know it was my last kick at the can."

Doug Gilmour's final NHL game was his only game for Quinn's Leafs. He got hurt and never played again. "It didn't turn out the way I wanted, but maybe it was meant to be."

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True Blue

Though he appeared in only 393 regular-season games and another 52 playoff games with the Maple Leafs, Doug Gilmour still holds a number of club scoring records: